Treasure Planet: Reclaimer
by AetheriumDreams
Summary: Set after the movie. Jim's been expelled, the galaxy is in peril, and he may hold the key to their salvation. The Procyons have been added to the Covenant, the Flood has awakened, and Ben's possessed by Guilty Spark. Let the chaos begin. Please R


_It was the same dream he'd been having for a while now. He was on Treasure Planet, but he was alone, waiting on the edge of an impossibly steep chasm that led to a dark abyss below. In his hands was the map, covered in its strange glyphs, gleaming golden and tempting. He could see his own reflection distorted in its surface. He knelt and inserted it in the hole in the ground, as memory dictated. This was a memory, right? It felt familiar, but somehow, it felt… off, like something had changed; he just didn't know what._

_He watched as the portal sprang up, a triangular gateway to locations all over the galaxy. He started to touch the little holographic icons that sprang up; a nebula here, a far-off asteroid belt there. Alien landscapes and creatures flashed before him as the portal changed scenes. Then his wandering index finger found an icon he was unfamiliar with. It was just a ring. A floating ring. If it were real, it would have fit his pinky. He touched it, half-curious, but also filled with an inexplicable sense of dread._

_Suddenly the portal changed. Darkness reeked from it. Harsh lights shone from inside the darkness, and suddenly, he saw hordes of monsters pouring from the portal, roaring and shrieking in harsh alien tongues. They had great, bulbous ships and wore frightening armor. They kept on marching, swarming around him in droves, invading his world. Then one grabbed him by the front of his shirt and hoisted him up, glaring at him with hate-filled eyes. It roared in his face, sharp teeth gleaming, and drew an odd-looking sword that spat parallel blue laser blades. It swung the sword… and the scene changed._

_He was standing on some kind of balcony, blinded by bright light, while a voice that sounded irkingly familiar repeated the same word in his ears over and over again… "Reclaimer… reclaimer… reclaimer…"_

"Jim… Jim… Jim…"

"AAAGH!"

Jim sat up in bed, eyes snapping wide open, clutching his covers and panting like he'd just run ten miles. His eyes adjusted to the dim light and he squinted. Then he saw Morph hiding behind his lamp and shook his head, half-smiling as he tried to calm down.

The pink shape-shifter giggled and floated up to Jim, squishing against his cheek and purring like a cat. Jim stroked his pet and slumped back down onto his pillow, looking up at the ceiling while Morph flew around chattering. This was just one of many disturbing nightmares that had plagued him for a few months now. Nightmares that made little sense yet were powerful enough to thoroughly scare him and deprive him of decent sleep. Nightmares… that had cost him all he'd fought to achieve at the Academy.

"Reclaimer!" Morph chirped, and Jim almost threw something at him.

"Did I say that in my sleep?" he demanded, and Morph nodded yes. "Ugh. Great. Next thing you know, I'll go completely nuts and spend the rest of my life in an asylum," Jim grumbled. "I mean, I already got kicked out of the Academy for freaking out… I can't help it I have nightmares! It's not my fault I'm paranoid!"

Morph whimpered and sat on Jim's shoulder, trying to comfort him.

"Aw, who cares anyway… I mean, two years has gotta count for something, right? Yeah. It's not like I didn't learn anything. And I can still join the Navy. Just not as an officer," Jim pouted. "Psychologically unsound my bum…"

He looked out the window and sighed. He never thought he'd be back at the Benbow, living off his mother like a little kid again. But here he was. The Navy had kicked him out because of his nightmares and the fatigue, fear and anxiety they caused him. They'd tried a psychiatrist, but she hadn't helped a bit; no matter how many inkblots Jim looked at or how "positive" he tried to make himself feel, he would still have those horrible dreams. His thrashing in his bunk would wake up other students and they complained. His inattentiveness in class would annoy his instructors and they would complain. His fatigue would make his PT sloppy and his coach would complain. Finally the complaints all piled up and shoved him out the Academy's doors.

It was midnight now. All was quiet and peaceful. But Jim still felt adrenaline in his veins. Adrenaline from what he'd seen in his dream. It had all seemed so real… so terrifying…

So totally weird and bogus, it made him want to puke.

"I don't know, Morph," Jim murmured, as Morph snuggled up and yawned in his own cute way, "I just don't know. All this stuff inside my head… it's like it means something, y'know? Like I'm remembering something that never happened. Or something." He closed his eyes. "Maybe that voyage did something to me, in my head. Maybe I am crazy, like one of those spacers who's seen too much."

He drifted off to sleep, hoping no more nightmares lay ahead.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

"And you're _sure_ your scouting party's observations are correct?" Admiral Amelia Doppler demanded, an uncharacteristic tremble in her normally astute and commanding voice.

One of her fleet's captains nodded. His green alien skin was drained to a sickly color and all three of his eyes were wide as saucers. "We… we know what we saw, ma'am. It… it is unbelievable. So… so… horrible…"

Amelia began shouting commands to her crew—turn the ship around, get me past this wretched moon that's blocking my view, I want to see it—and felt an icy ball of fear in her chest as her regal ship, the _Red Arrow_, turned starboard and swung past the crater-pocked moon. She now had a full view of the planet… and what an awful view it was. The entire planet appeared to be burning. Its surface was cracked glass and the atmosphere was boiling away. Something distracted her from this horror, though. There were sleek purple and blue ships… or what she assumed were ships… hovering around the planet, bombarding it with huge volleys of plasma. It was a scene of destruction unlike any she'd ever seen.

"What are these… these _mass murderers_," the feline woman hissed, feeling her blood run hot and her claws automatically elongate.

"We don't know, ma'am! But I suggest a full retreat! They've noticed one of our reconnaissance vessels!" Captain Blythe begged, his tentacles writhing nervously.

"They're being engaged!" someone else cried.

It was true. The plucky little reconnaissance boat _Flyaway_ was firing its own laser cannons at the nearest purple ship. But each round simply dissipated as it struck a force field that surrounded the entire enemy vessel. The enemy returned fire, sending what appeared to be plasma torpedoes toward _Flyaway_. The little boat was obliterated in seconds. There was nothing left to salvage… no dead to bury.

"FULL RETREAT!" Amelia yelled. "If they give chase, do not engage! Just focus on losing them! We've got to warn the rest of the fleet—"

"Admiral! They're coming in hot and fast!"

Amelia's eyes widened as she saw the bulbous ships coming like a swarm of ugly, bloated, metallic bugs. They started firing plasma beams and torpedoes at her ships, which moved hurriedly to evade. Not all of them were quick enough. Her own ship shuddered as a torpedo detonated nearby, causing everyone to fall back.

"GET US OUT OF HERE!" she screamed, unable to do anything but stare as the enemy ships began to close in, their cannons glowing with potent, deadly energy and purpose.

Suddenly all was quiet, save the screams of the panicking. Amelia couldn't believe it. The alien fleet had stopped? Or were they just getting ready for one final, obliterating salvo?

"Admiral! The computer! It's being infected by some kind of—" a technician cried, but he stopped talking when the computer buzzed and a holographic image popped up from a lit grid. It was the image of a hunched, ornately-robed creature with beady eyes and fingers clasped. It wore some kind of elaborate headdress on its strange head.

The alien being was silent for a moment, then began to speak—in English, oddly enough. "_You have been chosen to be our messengers,"_ it rasped. _"You see what we can do… how we punish those who stray from the Path. Now… go, and tell your masters that we demand your surrender, or every world you hold dear shall be transformed into a sea of glass and flame. Give up all humans to us… for they deserve to die without mercy. Such is the will of the gods… and we are their instrument… for we are… the _Covenant…_!"_


End file.
